Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Every couple of years, I teach a course on Jesus in Film at Duke. Last time I taught the course, I ran a fun poll at the end in which I asked students "What is your favourite Jesus film?"I posted the results here.

This year's results are now in! Amazingly enough, the academics' most hated film of all, Passion of the Christ, gets the most votes, albeit only a fifth of the class (6/30). As before, Jesus Christ Superstar gets a good showing, as does the wonderful BBC Nativity. Newcomers Young Messiah and Risen do surprisingly well:

I had pointed out that Garrow's model diagnoses high verbatim double tradition passages as the result of Matthew's copying of Luke alone. "High DT [double tradition] passages," he says,"are best explained by Matthew’s copying of Luke without interference from any other entity.” Low verbatim passages are the result of Matthew conflating Luke and the Didache. The claim is foundational and explicit in Garrow's work:

"[W]hen Matthew copies Luke without distraction he produces High DT passages. When, however, Matthew knows differing versions of the same event he conflates them – resulting in a Low DT passage."

In my response, I pointed out that Garrow's own list of "High DT passages" includes several cases of Matthew actually working not from "Luke alone" but from Luke and Mark. In other words, his claim that Matthew produces high verbatim passages when working from Luke alone is contradicted by his own model.

Garrow responds by arguing that Matthew's behaviour is "consistently plausible". I quote the paragraph in full:

A good solution to the Synoptic Problem is one that allows each Evangelist to behave in a consistently plausible manner. To rebut my thesis, therefore, Goodacre must show that, under my proposal, Matthew is required to do something that is essentially implausible. The unbelievable behavior he identifies is that Matthew (according to me) sometimes very closely conflates two or more related sources (e.g. The Sin against the Holy Spirit, where Matt. 31.31-32 conflates Mark 3.28-30, Luke 12.10 and Did. 11.7), sometimes switches between sources at intervals (e.g. the Beelzebul Controversy, where Matt. 12.22-30 alternates between Mark 3.22-27 and Luke 11.14-23), and sometimes decides to forego the labor of conflation where the rewards for doing so are limited (e.g. John’s messianic preaching and the sign of Jonah: Matt. 3.12 // Luke 3.17 and Matt. 12.38-42 // Luke 11.16, 29-32 respectively). I must leave you to judge whether this variation is so extraordinary as to justify Ehrman’s view that this is a ‘completely compelling’ reason to declare that Matthew could not have known Luke.

This does not respond to my point, which is not a question about degrees of plausibility, but a question about the consistency and coherence of Garrow's model. I do not have a difficulty with the issue of variation in degrees of verbatim agreement; indeed, as Garrow points out, I have myself written about this. The issue to which I am drawing attention is straightforward: Garrow claims that high verbatim agreement in double tradition is diagnostic that Matthew is working form Luke alone. I am pointing out that on his model, high verbatim agreement does not illustrate this.

Garrow adds some general criticisms of the Farrer theory, including the old chestnut about "unpicking", which dates back to F. Gerald Downing. I have little to add here to the excellent critiques by Ken Olson and Eric Eve on this issue, but I will say that no critic of the Farrer theory has yet successfully isolated a single occasion where an advocate of the Farrer theory uses the term that they consistently put in quotation marks. I generally try to avoid putting things in quotation marks that are not quotations, but I realize that practices vary.

Garrow concludes with his favourite quotation from me, "The theory that Matthew has read Luke … is rarely put forward by sensible scholars and will not be considered here" (The Synoptic Problem: A Way Through the Maze, 109), where I was of course just describing the field at the time of writing, a description echoed by Garrow himself three years later, "“The possibility that Matthew directly depended on Luke’s Gospel has not been widely explored” (The Gospel of Matthew's Dependence on the Didache, 228 n. 10). I should perhaps let on that my engagement with Alan's work began long before Evan's wager; that just gave me the opportunity to share work in progress. What's been fun has been the demonstration that people really are interested in the Synoptic Problem.

It's fun to be teaching a course on Jesus in Film when a new Jesus film comes out! The Star (dir. Timothy Reckardt) was released in November in time for the pre-Christmas crowds. I gave my students the opportunity to write a review of the film for extra credit. One of them was so good that I asked her if I could reproduce it here:

Review of The Star
Emily WaplesThe
Star (2017),
directed by Timothy Reckart, begins with a Pentatonix rendition of “Carol of the Bells.” The Nativity story that unfolds is
as rethought and modernized as the opening a capella song. A subtitle appears on
screen, immediately tipping us off to the film’s historical inaccuracy: “9 months BC.” Then again, in an animated film
featuring talking animals, were we expecting much regard for historicity?The film begins with Mary in
Nazareth (faithful to Luke 1.26) and the angel’s apparition to her. At its
onset, the angelic apparition is not unlike that in Jesus of Nazareth, if more fantastic: a bright light fills the
room, taking on a vaguely angelic form. The light crystallizes as stuff best
described as stardust. Later, the same stardust indicates the angel’s apparition to Joseph, a scene
omitted from the film (perhaps to save time, perhaps to avoid more discussion than
necessary of Mary’s
inexplicable pregnancy –
parents don’t want
questions about the birds and the bees. Mary’s quick acceptance of the angel’s words serves the same purpose).
The plot proceeds and, like in Jesus of
Nazareth, Mary goes to visit Elizabeth (Luke 1.39), a visit only detailed
by Mary’s return
to Nazareth with her cousins (6 months later, the subtitle tells us), just in
time for her and Joseph’s
wedding feast. Somehow a single shawl hides her pregnancy. When Joseph does
discover her pregnancy, he’s
not angry, as in The Nativity (2010).
If he was, again with the unwanted questions. Joseph’s character develops to be a
worried but good-hearted father-to-be, one who several times prays to God for a
sign. And that sign is Bo, the donkey.The film’s few (and, for the most part,
secondary) human characters are worth examining with regards to their biblical
origins (or lack thereof). Following the Disney princess trope, Mary’s morality is established through
her uncommon kindness towards animals. The primary recipient of her care and
the film’s
central character is a donkey, whom she names Bo (voiced by Steven Yeun). Both
she and Joseph are depicted as Jewish. The part of the plot revolving around
Mary and Joseph reflects a more Lukan influence: Nazareth, Elizabeth and
Zechariah, census, manger, though it balances the Lukan emphasis on Mary with
the Matthean focus on Joseph so that the two share the spotlight. With regards
to the shepherds (Luke) and the Magi (Matthew), the latter play a more
substantial role, if only because the addition of three camels to the cast of
animal characters must have been irresistible to writers Simon Moore and Carlos
Kotkin. Still, the film does not neglect the shepherds: the apparition of the
heavenly host to them is included, relying heavily on Ruth, the sheep who
befriends Bo and Dave the dove (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key) (Luke 2.8). For
his part, Herod is a classic baddie. The wise men (Matthew) visit him, and
while their conversation takes a backseat to the camels’ antics, the film at least
alludes to the darker aspects of the Matthean nativity narrative: Herod sets
his helmeted hunter (he’s
dressed as a Roman soldier) and his two dogs (they provide a voice for the
silent assassin) after Mary, and, consulting a scribe, remarks, “If you can’t kill this one child, I’ll kill them all.” This is the closest the film
comes to the Massacre of the Innocents (Matthew 2.16), but it is an appropriate
choice given the intended audience.Though I could not sympathize with the
complaints of famous actors serving as distractions in Jesus films like The Greatest Story Ever Told, in The Star, familiar voices frequently
take you out of the action: Gina Rodriguez (Jane
the Virgin) as Mary, Zachary Levi (Disney’s Tangled) as Joseph, Aidy Bryant (SNL, Girls) as Ruth, the
peppy sheep, and Oprah Winfrey as Deborah, the strangely prescient camel whose
reverent remarks about the baby Jesus frequently set goofball fellow camels
Felix and Cyrus guffawing (Tracy Morgan, SNL,
and Tyler Perry, the Madea movies, respectively).
A host of popular singers join them: Gabriel Iglesias as Rufus, Kelly Clarkson
as Leah, Kristin Chenoweth as Abby, and Mariah Carey as Rebecca.The film relies heavily on slapstick,
screwball and situational humor (chase scenes are frequent in the film). It is
at times quite self-conscious (or self-referential), taking advantage of popularized
Nativity elements to allude to the made-up plot revolving around Bo. For
example, the older donkey tells him, “We
grind grain, we don’t
carry kings” and you
know Bo will prove him wrong and carry the pregnant Mary to Bethlehem (a
popularized image not biblically founded). Bo, turning away from his dream of
joining the so called “royal
caravan” comes
to help Mary and Joseph on their trip to Bethlehem (like The Nativity and The Nativity
Story (2006), The Star has a
significant road trip sequence).Humor aside, The Star pushes broad Christian tropes: forgiveness (of Rufus and Thaddeus,
the soldier’s dogs)
and the power of prayer (at times, the speed and way with which God seems to
answer Joseph’s
requests makes you wonder if the film is pointing to coincidence, rather than
divine intervention; more likely, however, the film is remarking on the
unexpected way God is said to answer prayers: Joseph, who is not fond of Bo,
asks God for help and the donkey appears). Reckart includes a subtle commentary
on the meaning of Christmas: the royal caravan, which Bo seeks to join, is
represented by the unmistakable sound of jingle bells. You almost expect Santa
to show up. But what is the true meaning of Christmas? Bo gives a definitive
answer, turning his back on the caravan and the jingle bells, returning to help
Mary. The story has an evangelical bend, too, in the story of Ruth, who leaves
her flock to follow the star of Bethlehem (Matthew 2.2). The message is spelled
out for us: following God requires sacrifices. Mary and Joseph verbalize the
same idea: “Just
because God has a plan doesn’t
mean it’s going
to be easy.”
Christian platitudes? Yes. But they suit The
Star.The end credits contain a disclaimer
that the filmmakers sought to create a playful, fun story while striving to capture the “values and essence of the story.”
If I judge The Star by these criteria,
I’m inclined to declare the film a moderate
success. It’s a children’s
movie, far more so than any of the film’s we’ve seen this semester. It outdoes Godspell (1973), in a good way, and
strikes a more humorous tone than The
Miracle Maker (2000). The worthwhile comparison with The Young Messiah (2016) is between that film’s
Jesus and Bo, who both display a remarkable ignorance of the divinity of Jesus.
Only after everyone else has put two and two together does Bo realize that the
baby is king, just in time for him to bow down along with the Magi, shepherds
and host of animals (it’s a pretty nativity picture, though not as
impressive as that in The Nativity Story.
Perhaps because animation, far easier to manipulate, is not as impressive as a
live-action shot). Within its own genres – comedy, animated, children’s
–The Star is a success.
But, revolving around a made-up story about animals, it does not fit well in a classic
canon of Jesus films.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Over on Bart Ehrman's blog, there has been some fun relating to the Synoptic Problem. A commenter promised $1,000 to Prof. Ehrman's blog's charities if he engaged with Alan Garrow's work on the Synoptic Problem. Since I have read and thought about Dr Garrow's work, I thought I'd offer to write a post on it, drawing attention to what I see as one of the flaws in the argument. Prof. Ehrman has posted those comments today, and I am cross-posting them here.

In a recent comment on Bart Ehrman's blog, "Evan" suggested that Alan Garrow's arguments are so compelling that he effectively "proves beyond any doubt that Matthew used both Mark and Luke". He says that it is "virtually impossible to believe in the Q theory once you’ve seen this data". The same commenter goes on to offer $1,000 for the charities on the blog in return for an assessment of Garrow's case, asking in particular for "holes in his arguments." As a self-confessed synoptic nerd, and as one who has spent some time with Garrow's work, I thought I would offer this critique by way of response. Since "Evan" is particularly interested in holes in Garrow's case, I thought I would focus on one particular flaw that places a major question mark over this model.

I should point out that while Bart and I are on different sides on the Synoptic Problem, he a staunch supporter of the Two-Source Theory and I an advocate of the Farrer Theory, we are both agreed that Matthew did not know Luke, which is what is under discussion here. I have enjoyed reading Bart's recent blog entries (and the multiple comments!) on these issues, and I hope to find a moment to respond, even if just to provide an excerpt from something I have written. But back to the immediately pressing issue.

Alan Garrow has made his case in a series of videos on his blog, Streeter's 'Other' Synoptic Solution: The Matthew Conflator Hypothesis and An Extant Instance of Q, and it is these videos that "Evan" is referring to. Garrow's more detailed, scholarly argument is laid out in two articles by the same names recently published in the premier journal in the field, New Testament Studies. The fact that one of Garrow's articles is entitled "An Extant Instance of Q" illustrates that it can hardly be the case that "Alan Garrow has compiled an extremely compelling argument that Q never existed" (so "Evan", on Bart's blog). Garrow is actually arguing that Matthew and Luke did use Q, and that we can see exactly how they used Q, because Q has not been lost. Q is, in fact, the Didache! The Didache is a fascinating early Christian work, first published in 1883, but Garrow is the first -- to my knowledge -- to identify it with the hypothetical Q.

Garrow's synoptic model works with Marcan Priority (something shared by Bart and me) but he adds a couple of further elements: (1) Matthew and Luke both know and use Q, which is now unveiled as the Didache; and (2) Matthew also knows Luke's Gospel. In his videos and articles, he works with the analogy of a multiple vehicle car crash. All the data, he says, need to be explained. He then pays special attention to a key element in the car crash -- the variation in rates of verbatim (word for word) agreement between Matthew and Luke in the double tradition (i.e. in passages found only in Matthew and Luke). He points out, quite correctly, that sometimes Matthew and Luke have very high verbatim agreement with one another, and sometimes they have rather low verbatim agreement with one another. This variation in verbatim agreement, he says, demands an explanation.

Garrow argues that his model provides a good explanation of both the high verbatim and the low verbatim passages. High verbatim passages are the result of Matthew directly copying from Luke. They are places where Matthew has just Luke in front of him. Here, Matthew is copying Luke "without distraction." Low verbatim passages are the result of Matthew conflating Luke with Q (=the Didache), i.e. places where Matthew does not agree as much with Luke because he is distracted by one of Luke's sources, Q (=the Didache). As he expresses it, "High DT [double tradition] passages are best explained by Matthew’s copying of Luke without interference from any other entity.”

Garrow is right that the spectrum of agreement in Matthew's and Luke's double tradition requires an explanation. Anyone studying the Synoptic Problem should certainly make sure that they have a good account of why Matthew and Luke sometimes agree very closely and why they sometimes provide the same material in very different words. But is Garrow's diagnosis correct? I don't think so. The difficulty is that it is contradicted by his own model. Several of the passages with very high verbatim agreement in Matthew and Luke are passages where Matthew, on Garrow's own theory, is also copying from Mark, passages like John's messianic preaching (Matt. 3.12 // Luke 3.17), the Beelzebub Controversy (Matt. 12.22-30 // Luke 11.14-23), and the Sign of Jonah (Matt. 12.38-42 // Luke 11.16, 29-32). In passages like these, Matthew and Luke can be remarkably close in wording, and yet these are passages where there are also parallels in Mark.

In other words, Garrow has constructed a model where Matthew is supposed to be agreeing very closely with Luke when there is no distraction, in places where only Luke has the passage in question. And he is supposed to agree with Luke much less when he is distracted by another source, the Didache (or Q). But this is sometimes manifestly not the case. We can test Garrow's thesis by asking how Matthew behaves when the evangelist is copying from both Luke and Mark. And since these passages (usually called "Mark Q Overlap passages") feature a lot of very high verbatim agreement between Matthew and Luke, it is clear that "distraction" has nothing to do with it.

Garrow summarizes his own argument by saying that, "[W]hen Matthew copies Luke without distraction he produces High DT passages. When, however, Matthew knows differing versions of the same event he conflates them – resulting in a Low DT passage." But on Garrow's own thesis, Matthew is quite capable of producing high verbatim agreement when he "knows differing versions of the same event." It may be worth adding that there are plenty of low verbatim passages in Matthew and Luke where there is no parallel in Mark or the Didache, i.e. Matthew is perfectly capable of producing a low verbatim passage on his own with just one source. Whatever we might make of the wisdom of comparing one's synoptic model to a car crash, it has to be said that high verbatim agreement is simply not diagnostic of an author working from only one source, just as low verbatim agreement is not diagnostic of an author working from more than one.
--

Thursday, September 14, 2017

I am happy to be able to post the following announcement of a position in Early Christianity in our department at Duke:

--The Department of Religious Studies within Trinity College of Arts & Sciences at Duke University invites applications and nominations for a position in the study of Early Christianity, at the rank of (tenure-track) Assistant or (tenured) Associate Professor. Candidates with expertise in any aspect of Early Christianity in the late ancient world (ca. 3rd to 10th century) are encouraged to apply. The successful candidate will be familiar with critical methods in Religious Studies and will combine excellence in undergraduate instruction with teaching and mentoring in the Graduate Program in Religion. Collaboration with other programs and departments at Duke as well as with colleagues at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill is expected.

Interested candidates should send a letter of application, a curriculum vitae, evidence of innovation and expertise in teaching (e.g. teaching evaluations, a teaching statement, a list of proposed courses), and the names and contact information (email, phone, and postal address) of three references to http://academicjobsonline.org. Initial review of applications will begin November 1, 2017. Informal queries should be addressed to Professor Marc Brettler, chair of the search committee, at MZB3@duke.edu. Consideration will continue until the position is filled. Start date is August 2018.

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

I am grateful to Andrew Bernhard for sending over news of a change in his website Gospels.net. He posted the following message on Labor Day:

Thank you to all who have visited my site during the past twenty years. I am humbled by the attention it has received and grateful for the opportunities it has provided me to connect with interesting people around the world.
I am now pleased to pass gospels.net on to Mark Mattison. I have been impressed by his dedication, as an independent scholar, to preparing public domain translations of ancient gospels not included in the New Testament. I regard Mark's work in making these gospels available online and usable by all as invaluable.
I wish Mark only the best in continuing his work of making these texts easily accessible (without either sensationalizing or denigrating them). Gospels.net is his website now.

Andrew's website has been online since the early days, and I have happy memories of finding it, enthusing about it, and linking to it on the NT Gateway. I've just taken a look at the NT Gateway from seventeen years ago, and there it is on the Non-canonicals page, then titled "Jesus of Nazareth in Early Christian Gospels". I must admit that I do miss those simpler times when it was possible to be almost exhaustive in one's coverage of the area, and I miss the fun of hand-coding my web pages.

Going back a little further, it's a "Featured Link" in July 1999, with the comment "This fine web resource by Andrew Bernhard is the new version of the web site formerly known as The Quest of the Historical Jesus. This is a first class resource, featuring introductions, fresh translations, bibliography and links on canonical, non-canonical and hypothetical gospels. Its most notable new feature is The Greek Fragments of the Gospel of Thomas, an on-line edition of the Oxyrhynchus fragments of Thomas with translation."

But that is quite enough reminiscing. Andrew has now handed on his site to Mark Mattison, who is well known for his The Paul Page. The new gospels.net includes Mark's translations of The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Mary, The Gospel of Judas, and other ancient gospels.

When I asked Andrew why he decided to transfer gospels.net to Mark, he replied:

Over the last five years or so, there have been a lot of changes in my life. As a result, my interests have changed pretty drastically, and I just realized that I personally wasn’t going to be devoting much more time or energy to the study of ‘lost gospels.’ I actually retired the site back in January, but then I changed my mind and decided it would be better to pass it on to somebody else. Mark seemed like the perfect fit, and I have no doubt he’ll make great use of the site. He’ll probably make it better than I ever did! Regardless, as far as my own scholarship on early Christianity is concerned, I am done.”

So this post is in part to say a big thank you to Andrew for his fine website, and the work he has put into it over the last two decades, and in part to thank Mark Mattison for taking it on and taking it forward.

Tuesday, September 05, 2017

Twelve years ago (Say it with awe; Say it with awe update), I blogged about the legendary John Wayne story, in which the Duke, playing the role of the centurion at the cross in The Greatest Story Ever Told, delivers the line "Truly, this was the Son of God," only to be told by director George Stevens, "Say it with awe, John!" He responds, "Awww, truly this was the son of God!".

Here's the clip in context. Wayne comes on at the 2:30 mark:

I noted at the time that the story certainly appears to be apocryphal, and I have been meaning to take a little more time to look into it ever since. I am currently teaching my Jesus in Film course at Duke, and this week we all watched The Greatest Story Ever Told, and it prompted me to revisit the story.

It is always difficult to chase down the authenticity of stories like this. Demonstrating that something did not happen is tough. But after a little searching, I found a lovely confirmation that in fact it never happened, in an interview that fills in some background and context in Greatest Story.

The source is Michael Munn, John Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth (New York: New American Library, 2003): 248-9. Munn begins by retelling the famous story:

There is a famous but untrue story concerning Wayne’s only line of dialogue in the Crucifixion scene, and this is the time to put the record straight. According to legend, Wayne said his line “Truly this was the Son of God” three times, none of them to Stevens’s satisfaction. So Stevens said, “Can you give it a little more awe, Duke?” and Duke said, “Aw, this was truly the Son of God.” Very funny. But not true.

He goes on with an account of a 1977 interview he conducted with Roddy McDowall, who played Matthew in the film:

When I interviewed Roddy McDowall on the set of The Thief of Baghdad at Shepperton Studios in 1977, he talked about his work on The Greatest Story Ever Told, in which he played the disciple Matthew, and about John Wayne’s brief appearance as the centurion. Said McDowall, “We shot the Crucifixion on a soundstage in the studio. It was a marvelous set. There was hardly any dialogue except between the actors playing the two thieves and Max as Jesus. I promise you, John Wayne as the centurion did not say a word. If you watch the film closely, when you hear his voice saying, ‘Truly this was the Son of God,’ you don’t see his lips move, and that’s because George Stevens had decided he wasn’t going to let the audience hear Wayne. In fact, he shot the scenes of Jesus carrying his cross and the Crucifixion in such a way that you hardly knew it was John Wayne. George was embarrassed that he’d been made to bring in so many stars as extras. After filming, George decided he needed the centurion to say the line after all, and he got Wayne into a sound studio, and he wasn’t in costume and he just had a microphone, and George asked him to deliver the line. Wayne told him, ‘I can’t do this.’ George said, ‘You’re an actor, aren’t you? That’s what you’ve been trying to prove all these years.’ And Wayne said, ‘I’ve got nothing to react to, so if I screw this up, don’t blame me.’ And he was right. He couldn’t give the line what it needed. You can’t blame Wayne, you can’t blame George; you can only blame the assholes who made the decision to use Wayne—and all the other actors who were in that scene just so the names would bring in the crowds—which they didn’t.”

Munn's account ends with this enjoyable comment:

Playing John the Baptist was Charlton Heston, Hollywood’s most prolific star of epics. He said, “There are actors who can do period parts and there are actors who can’t. God knows Duke Wayne couldn’t play a first-century Roman.”

McDowall, as reported by Munn, is right -- Wayne's lips are not moving in the scene.

Although it never happened, it is, of course, a lovely story, and like all good myths, it tells the hearer something important about its subject matter. In this case, it names the director of the film, it tells you that Hollywood bigwigs played key cameos, and it tells you that the film erred by casting famous Hollywood stars at the expense of realism. And, of course, it makes you chuckle.

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

It's the beginning of a new academic year at Duke and this semester I am teaching my undergraduate course on Jesus in Film for a second time. I am hoping to blog about the course as I did last time.

For a first post on the topic, I have pulled up the results of a poll I took after teaching the course in Spring 2015. I simply asked the students in the class, after they had watched over twenty Jesus films, "Which is your favourite?" Here's how the vote came out:

Friday, June 30, 2017

Back in 2005, I transcribed a Greek text of the Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment, from Erich Klostermann's edition) and uploaded to the web. I updated the files in 2007 and 2009 and for a couple of years I have been meaning to make some corrections to the text in the files. I am very grateful to Prof. Dr. Hans-Peter Schütt for pointing out several typos in the original files. They are now all corrected and I think we have a pretty accurate version, but please let me know if you spot anything else that's in need of correction. They are found in the same spot here: